PonerologyNews.com

One of the most useful perspectives from which to consider questions in ponerology is that of evolutionary psychology. This is the field that asks how and why certain psychological traits and characteristics came about and were selected for during our long evolutionary past. And a number of thinkers have commented on how psychopathy might be viewed through this lens.

I shared some of these evolutionary views of psychopathy in previous writings, discussing:

• What a profound evolutionary development the emergence of humans without conscience was
• Whether psychopathy is best understood as an aberration of normal human capacities akin to blindness or deafness or, rather, as a reflection of a different type of human being practicing a different, perhaps detestable to many, but also successful survival and reproductive strategy
• Why some experts view psychopaths as “intraspecies predators” or even a separate subspecies of Homo Sapiens

Recently, a debate has been raging about these very issues. (more…)

Could the way you walk be a tip-off to a violent person that you are an easy target?

A new study in the Journal of Interpersonal Violence reinforces the fact that, under certain conditions, this might be the case.

The Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R), the current gold standard test for psychopathy, assesses a person on a variety of elements that are classified into two main categories called “factors.” The first, Factor 1, consists of the person’s interpersonal or affective traits, basically measuring the extent to which they have an aggressive narcissistic personality. The second, Factor 2, consists of the person’s actual behavior and measures the extent to which they exhibit an antisocial or socially deviant lifestyle.

Previous research has shown that certain aspects of body language, including walking style, are characteristic of victims and that those scoring high on the Factor 1 measures of the PCL-R are more accurate than others in judging someone’s vulnerability simply from watching them walk.

Now, in “Psychopathy and Victim Selection: The Use of Gait as a Cue to Vulnerability,” researchers Angela Book, Kimberly Costello and Joseph A. Camilleri studied 47 inmates at a maximum security penitentiary in Ontario, Canada and found that not only, as expected, do the inmates scoring high on PCL-R Factor 1 more accurately than others judge people’s vulnerability by observing their gait, but they are also more likely to actually explicitly mention the victim’s gait in explaining why they perceived them as vulnerable. (more…)

One of the most important aspects of ponerology – a crucial one in seeking answers regarding why people act (or fail to act) in ways that do harm to others – is investigation into what goes on in the brain when people relate with each other in various ways. We might term such investigation “social neuroscience.”

Well there is actually a research journal by that very name. And that journal, Social Neuroscience, has recently honed in on topics at the very heart of ponerology. Its latest issue – Volume 8, Issue 2 – is a special issue focusing on aggression and violence.

It features an editorial entitled “The social cognitive neuroscience of aggression, violence, and psychopathy” followed by six studies that consider the links between neurological markers and responses and harmful behavior.

Here is a summary of the six studies in this special issue. (more…)

Clients with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) are notoriously difficult to treat. This is so much the case that many therapists are loathe to even attempt the feat since their methods have such frustratingly poor success rates.

However, in the many years I’ve spent considering and researching BPD, I have come across two therapeutic approaches that seem to offer a glimmer of hope.

• Dialectical Behavioral Therapy
• Schema Therapy

Well, now one professor is using the latter method, Schema Therapy, to treat some of the only clients considered even more complex and resistant than those with BPD – psychopaths. (more…)

One of the most powerful facts that I may have ever learned is that psychopaths differ biologically from other people. I remember the epiphany I experienced as soon as I internalized this fact, quickly realizing the profound implications it had for everything from psychotherapy to activism to day-to-day life.

When I wrote my detailed page about psychopathy, I made sure to include information about some of these biological differences. Many of them have to do with the ways in which psychopaths’ brain structure and function diverge from that of others.

Recently, a new study was published adding to this important and growing mass of findings. (more…)

In my in-depth piece about ponerology, I devoted a great deal of real estate, including, for instance, this section, to explaining how any ideology or religion – even one whose actual teachings would seem antithetical to “evil” – can be hi-jacked by pathological people who then use it to cloak their malicious activity. This is a very important point to understand. Pathological people often draw sympathy and support from others by espousing admirable sounding ideals, even while flouting those very ideals with their behavior.

A new study, described in the Vancouver Sun, touches on this interplay between ideology/religion (in this case, specifically religion) and harmful activity.

The study, led by Volkan Topalli, a criminal justice professor at Georgia State University, was published in an article entitled “With God on My Side: The Paradoxical Relationship Between Religious Belief and Criminality Among Hardcore Street Offenders” in the journal Theoretical Criminology. (more…)